WORDS WE DON’T HAVE, BUT MAYBE COULD USE

I’M HAPPY TO ADD FOREIGN WORDS TO ENGLISH especially with their nuances. One of my favorites is Schadenfreude, from the German “enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others.” 

A source of worldwide Schadenfreude. Image from huffingtonpost.com.

Another favorite, not quite added to English as yet, is ちょっとつんどく, tsundoku, the Japanese word literally for “piling up unread books.” I confess I’m sorta tsundoku myself.

Here, thanks to WordGenius, are several “Japanese Words and Phrases You Won’t Find in English.”

Wabi-Sabi. This is another favorite of mine, already having appeared here at SimanaitisSays: “Wabi is marked by tranquil simplicity, the beauty of rocks existing just so in raked sand. Sabi, which means literally ‘rust’ or ‘patina,’ is characterized by treasuring the passage of time, in nature and the works of man.” 

WordGenius adds, “Think of this fun rhyming expression as the Japanese equivalent to Robert Frost’s poem ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay.’ It means accepting imperfection as a natural part of life—including the eventual decay and end of everything. It’s also considered an aesthetic point of view, like admiring a raw wood table for a giant knot in the center instead of discarding it.”

Kogarashi. WordGenius says, “The English language has all kinds of nuance for weather words. A breeze is quite different from a gust, for example. A sprinkle won’t ruin your day like a downpour will. The Japanese coined the word kogarashi to describe the first cold winds of the season that signal winter is on the way.”

Not in the WordGenius list, I learned mushi-atsui, “hot and humid,” from Sensei-San, our teacher back when Wife Dottie and I were studying Japanese at our community college. Google Translate says it’s literallly “Insects are hot,” but Sensei-San said “hot and humid” and that’s proof enough for me.

Boketto. “In English,” WordGenius recounts, “we refer to someone as having a far-eyed or glassy-eyed look while gazing vacantly into the distance—almost like daydreaming. The Japanese have a succinct word for that: boketto.”

Yes, these days I am ボケット a lot.

Kuidaore. “Love splurging on a fancy meal? Hate seeing the impact it has on your finances?” asks WordGenius. “There’s a Japanese word for that. Kuidaore means eating yourself into bankruptcy and is linked to the Japanese proverb, ‘Dress into ruin in Kyoto, eat into ruin in Osaka.’ ”

I’m a bit kuidaore with my home cooking colossal free-range red shrimp. 

Ozappa.  According to WordGenius, “Ozappa is a fun word to say, and its definition is fun too. It refers to a personality type you might attribute to Matthew McConaughey. If you don’t sweat the small stuff and tend to be chill no matter what life throws at you, a Japanese speaker might say you’re ozappa.”

Oddly, Google Translate says the English equivalent of おざっぱ is “Roughly.” I wonder if it’s linguistically related to aragoto, the  Kabuki tough-guy character.  

Well, in any event what with my kuidaore, I suspect I’m more boketto than ozappa. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2023